His World
by Sonic1000
Summary: Sonic gets stuck on Earth again, and needs major help to get out again. He is so far into the future though, that Chris isn't alive anymore. Astro decides to help, but can their combined might save them from Dr. Eggman's most diabolical plan yet?
1. 1: I'm Sonic, Sonic The Hedgehog

Hello, if you are reading this, this is my first story.** None of the characters belong to me. **Only this story is mine, and even that is a stretch. I like Sonic the Hedgehog games, and liked both the ILA Astro Boy from 2003 and the Astro Boy movie from 2009. I noticed that not many stories have been made about them, so I made one. Enjoy.

**I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog**

Astro rolled from side to side, trying to do what he used to call sleeping. Dr. Tenma, Astro's creator (to whom Astro referred to only as 'dad') had lately been trying to give him back particular human pleasures he had lost thanks to his reanimation as a robot. Most of his attempts had failed, including this one. You had to hand it to him, though, he really was trying. Astro felt much sympathy for him, as he skipped meals and had sleepless nights trying to sooth Astro's pain at his loss. Now that Astro had gained robots their rights, he had extra time on his hands to remember what it was like to be human. He also had time to reflect over the few important events that have happened since the robot rebellion; for instance, Dr. Tenma's release from prison.

**FLASHBACK**

"Astro, from this day forward I will turn over a new leaf. Just please; let us discuss the matter of whom you will live with. I truly do miss you, To- I mean Astro. Is it fine with you, calling you Tobio?" Astro replied, "It's okay to call me Toby, but please try to remember, I'm Astro now. About the discussion, too. I was also going to say that, but what about Zoran and Dr. Ochanimizu. They'll miss me." Tenma sighed, "If you absolutely feel the need to live with them, then I won't stop you. Please, though, listen to

me. I am the only one who can repair you properly should anything occur. Of course I can give your blueprints to O'shay, but I still do not trust him completely." Astro fumed a bit over that last statement, but ignored it and said, "Dr. O'shay was the one taking care of me while you were trying

to create a robotic revolution, I think you can trust him. I do want to live with you again, dad, but Zoran is my sister. What will we do about her? She only knows your bad side, and will probably be pretty reluctant to leave Dr. O'shay" "Toby, you leave them to me. Besides, O'shay was Zoran's creator, so technically she is more of a distant relative. That also means she will have this same discussion with O'shay, whether she comes or stays is her decision, Astro, not ours. Nonetheless, I will speak with her and try my best to convince her, as I said before though, no promises." Astro pondered over his situation for a while, and seeing no other logical alternative said, "Alright, I'll just finish packing up. See ya later dad!"

**END FLASHBACK**

Zoran decided to stay with Dr. Ochanimizu, but Dr. Tenma's new house and Dr. O'shay's were so close, it didn't matter much that they were in desperate houses. Dr. Tenma moving the entire house closer just for his son's convenience was not something even he expected Tenma to do, but Tenma wanted to prove he was sorry. Astro also found some of his old friends, too. From before he was shut down and Dr. Tenma destroyed his lab. Cora, Zane, Sludge, and Widget had been wondering why he had neglected them for the past three years. They had seen almost every escapade he found himself in, and had cheered him on. Astro felt bad, not noticing the screams before. Now that he found them, though, he could make it up to them. He rose from his bed, signaling to his dad that he had not 'slept' and that the improvement would have to wait for another day. Dr. Tenma nodded and decided it was time to catch up on his necessary sleep before continuing the frustrating upgrade. "I'm going to see Cora dad, I'll be back in a few hours." Astro flew off, counting four city blocks before landing. It was a short distance, almost too short for flying, but he loved it. He landed carefully, making sure not to burn the grass under him this time, and walked over to the front door.

Cora's house looked much like Dr. O'shay's, except it had hundreds of types of exotic plants over the front yard, now with a burnt patch of grass next to a particularly big magnolia, that didn't look to appreciative of the black circle in the green. Dr. Tenma had given him a device that translates the robotic brain waves plants give off into emotions, and words. It was very useful at times, but Astro usually categorized it in the 'just plain annoying' part of his database. Particularly because the plants in Cora's yard almost never appeared to have anything nice to say about anything, other than their supply of food and water. Astro sighed as the plants began to insult him in every way possible. Only in such a nice house could you find plants with such a terrible attitude. He also realized as the magnolia mumbled some pretty colorful language in Astro's direction that he was probably being bombarded because of the twenty or so burnt patches decorating the front yard. The plants ceased their verbal offensive just as he made it to the door, of which Astro was very much grateful of. Just in case, though, he shut off that particular function.

Astro rang the doorbell and waited patiently for someone to answer the door. After waiting for what seemed like hours, Cora opened the door. Her eyes widened slightly at Astro's unexpected appearance, and gave him a look that clearly said 'you came to the right place, at the wrong time' then said "and speaking of the wannabe human, look mom, its Astro" He judged by the way she gritted her teeth and spit out "wannabe human" that Cora's mom was not too appreciative or sympathetic about him being a robot, unlike many scientists at the Ministry of Science. Then again, they knew he was human at some point. He heard a sharp intake of breath, and then "how much did you hear?" almost a whisper. Astro replied, "none ma'am, the plants wouldn't stop bothering me. By the way, you wouldn't mind teaching your magnolias some manners would you?" Cora chuckled loudly as her mother started mumbling to herself. Astro turned up his hearing and heard her say, "Robots should have never gotten such privileges, and who does he think he is, telling me what to do. My flowers do not talk, let alone talk rudely."

"Bye mom, I'm going out for a few hours! I'll be back soon." Cora said. She turned around, "'would you mind teaching your flowers some manners' really? Why are you so nice to people all the time, she was trash talking you, you could hear it." Astro let Cora hop on his back and grab around his neck before he took off. Once high enough that no one could hear him he said, "I just can't, she had a life that did not make her too appreciative of robots. Am I supposed to tell her she's wrong? As long as she doesn't try to get me dismantled, it's none of my business." "So, you're just going to let them talk about you like that?" Astro thought about it, did they really deserve all of the forgiveness he gave them? He thought about his dad, Atlas, and Pluto. Atlas lived with his dad again, and Pluto lived with Zoran and Dr. O'shay. They were happy where they were, then Astro thought about the robot hunters. He came to a decision.

**NOT METRO CITY**

Skunk was just about to give up. On one of the news channels in the Outlands, they spoke about this jewel called a 'chaos emerald' a jewel seen before a long time ago. It had incredible unlimited power, and Skunk wanted to harness it for his latest machine. He also heard that contact with a machine could destroy the machine. Skunk was planning to find two. He was going to give one as a 'present' to Astro, and if that didn't work, it was probably safe enough to power his 'Destroyer' anyways. Skunk found one, judging by the only picture he had of one. He wasn't sure if it was the glowing sapphire jewel in his hand, but what other stone that he knows of glows?

Currently, Skunk had infiltrated an army base. He really didn't care whose it was as long as he got the emerald rumored to be there. At least, he didn't care whose it was 'till he realized it was a fraud. The 'emerald' was a polished ruby half the size of the fist-sized jewel in his hand. He growled and pocketed the gem. Skunk could sell it for a hefty price later. "This is just a worthless stone, what a waste." he said as he turned to leave. "That Chaos Emerald in your hand, though, ain't worthless at all to me." the voice sounded young, in the early teens. Skunk put on an ugly smirk. "I didn't know I had a snoopy little hitchhiker riding the fame train with me." Skunk said in annoyance. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand gun. "Really, is that the best you could think of? Fame train and gun, where's good old Egghead when you need him?" came the reply. "You tryin' to be funny kid? Get your little behind out here where I can see it, maybe I can give it a few more holes." The teen laughed his head off. After a few frustrating minutes, he replied, "Alright, I appreciate the patience. Now though, be prepared to be put in your place." The teen stepped out... To reveal a blue coat of quills. His tan skin only visible on his arms, stomach, and muzzle. He had huge, piercing emerald green eyes that somehow looked joyful and dead serious at the same time.

He wore white gloves and red, sneakers with gold buckles. Skunk stared at it in horror, "what are you?" he managed to breath out past his rapidly pounding heart. He could feel the blood pumping through his veins. "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. Who are you?" Skunk didn't even pay attention to the question, he just aimed and fired. The bullet never hit its target, and Skunk was on the ground before his brain registered that he was out cold. When he woke up, he was in a Metro City police car and had a blinding headache. Skunk tried to remember the name of the creature, but all he could remember was 'hedgehog'. It swirled around in his head, and he could feel himself blacking out again. The last think on his mind as he slipped out of consciousness was the chaos emerald that used to be in his coat pocket.


	2. 2: The Skunk

**The Skunk**

"Cora, I decided a long time ago. Hamegg, the Peacekeeper, Atlas, and Shadow couldn't change that. No one will." What many people didn't realize was that humans are known for their mistakes. It's what they learned from, and made them stronger. "People are allowed to make mistakes, Cora. It's people like Atlas, Pluto, Zoran, and I that can't." "So, your pretty much saying robots can't make mistakes, but what if you do, what then? If you don't show people how much like them you are, then they won't leave you any room for mistakes." Astro thought it over, but he must have stayed quiet for too long, because Cora soon said, "I'm sorry Astro, you barely got your real dad back and you probably already have too much to think about. I'm just mad at my mom, she didn't like all the emotion you put into that speech you gave before you stopped that missile from destroying Robotopia. You know, you scared me when you risked that much for those robots that tried to kill you in the first place. I honestly thought you were gone, just beaten beyond repair."

Just then blue letters appeared in his vision, saying 'call from Metro City Police Station: Detective Tawashi' Astro sighed, and answered the call. The detective just flat out told him what happened and what he was needed for; no softening or anything to hint that he didn't take his job seriously, as he always acted. This time, though, was different, more urgent. "Astro, we caught Skunk in an abandoned military base and found probably our only suspects for the blue flashes people around the world have been having. We need you over here now!" The call terminated, and Astro was left to explain to Cora that he needed to go, but before he could answer Cora said, "I know hero boy, just drop me off at my house, alright. I'll talk to you later." Appreciative of being understood, Astro flew towards Cora's house, which was directly under them. When taking friends on flights, he liked to stay near their house just in case something came up, like the call from the detective.

He landed very slowly, not wanting the flight to end, but eventually he made contact with the earth. Cora hopped off and ran toward her house. As she got to her front door she called, "Careful, Astro! Don't push yourself too hard." "Don't worry, I won't!" he gave her a reassuring smile, and then blasted off. It had been sometime since he last heard of the blue flashes that had been sighted all around the world, and his 'memory' was a bit fuzzy. (Another installment of Dr. Tenma, his memory was now separate from his database, like having two brains.) So he went over all the information of the blue flashes to refresh 'it'. They were first sighted on the now-small town of Station Square; it used to be the capital of a state, but had since lost its importance. The bustling city was now a ghost town. From there the blue flashes spread throughout the United States, in a matter of seconds. They soon hit Metro City and Japan in mere hours. They were last spotted somewhere in what used to be India. From his database, the blue flashes were also seen in Station Square some time when countries still existed. The phenomenon was then called the 'blue blur' No other records of it were recorded anywhere else in the world. Both Detective Tawashi and Astro thought it had something to do with the pollution in the atmosphere, but pollution practically disappeared when nearly everything became recyclable. There were still huge piles of garbage outside Metro City, but it was rapidly depleting.

Astro made a forward dive, letting his rockets shut off. There was a moment of stillness as he quickly lost momentum, building up excitement for what was to come next. He fell. The wind whipping past his face and through the cloth of his clothes, pulling at his skin. 'Artificial skin' he reminded himself, and he had a moment of melancholy despite the thrill of the fall. He turned the rockets in his legs back on at the last possible moment before he became a pile of broken circuits and tangled wires to rid himself of the feeling. His regular joyfulness back at having survived the fall, he walked into the Metro City Police Station, where the detective was waiting.

"Oh, there you are Astro, come here. We are going to interrogate Skunk. If anything funny happens, don't let him get away." "Alright, detective you can count on me." Astro replied. They walked several minutes in a corridor that seemed to go on forever, and Astro busied himself taking in all the information he could. Everything was gray, from the roof to the hundreds of doors that lined the corridors. Each door had a golden number above it. "What section of the Station is this detective?" Astro asked, having seen all there was to see. "These are interrogation rooms, Astro. The new ones. They are equipped with the latest in defensive, bug detective, and containment technology, no one is getting in or out without their own unique key card." He held up a blue card with his name on it. The card glowed a brilliant sky blue. "The scanner not only scans a microscopic code on the card but the brightness and color of the card as well. Even Skunk couldn't sneak out of here, considering that the walls are also made up of a reinforced diamond-titanium alloy. You wouldn't believe how many years it's going to take to pay off all the Station owes."

"Why go to all that trouble just for these rooms? Shouldn't the containment cells also have the upgrade?" Tawashi chuckled as if he was immensely proud of himself, "Astro, don't you think even the number of interrogation rooms is ridiculous?" Astro's eyes lit up as he got the meaning of the question, "you're saying that these also double as containment cells?" "Exactly right, this was a total upgrade; no one is going to be escaping prison for a long while." Astro stared at the detective in respect and appreciation. It was a smart move, and it cut more than half of the time that Astro spent taking down ridiculously dangerous criminals off, as he was mostly taking down criminals that escaped on an embarrassingly regular basis. "That cuts both our work clean in half, I'll be able to finish more of the paperwork that seems to double every day, and you'll be able to do whatever you do on your free time."

Astro smiled, "actually, Dr. Tenma is helping me be able to sleep again. Of course, I can sleep already if I want to, but he's still working on making me able to dream." "Why would you want to sleep, you're a robot. Isn't sleeping almost like dying to you?" "Maybe, but I just want to be human again." Astro looked hurt by Tawashi's comment then he realized how carelessly he had asked that question. "Sorry Astro, you know I didn't mean it that way." Astro lightened up a bit after the apology, but was a shade sadder than his usual, cheery self. When they arrived at door 152, the detective held the card up to a scanner on the right of the door. The scanner flashed green, signaling the acceptance of the code' and the door slid open silently. Skunk was sitting down on the cot, facing them. For once, he looked legitimately frightened. "Alright Skunk, since we didn't actually catch you doing anything illegal this time, we just want to know what attacked you at the base and why. If I catch you next time though, you'll be happy to know your time will be doubled for whatever you got away with this time. So tell me, what does it have to do with the blue flashes going on world-wide?"

Skunk hesitated, and then mustered up the courage to ask, "Why should I tell you?" Tawashi answered in a grim tone, "Because whatever is creating the blue flashes is also causing city-wide blackouts, and causing all sorts of robots to short circuit, and explode. In short, it's a robot murderer that is incredibly strong based on the energy readings we recently received. In fact, not long ago, the flash appeared right here. Astro's energy readings are off the charts. Even the residue from the flashes though..." The detective reached into a coat pocket and pulled out an energy gauge. He turned it on, and it immediately made whining sounds as it short circuited and died. Skunk visibly blanched. "Alright, alright just save me from it. It was some kind of mutant hedgehog, but blue. I was searching for a jewel called a Chaos Emerald; it's a jewel so powerful it can sometimes destroy a machine just by physical contact. I wanted it to-uh; sell it to-uh, Metro City. Something like that is hundreds of times more powerful than Astro's blue core. The thing is, that was exactly what it was after. When I refused to give it to him, he stepped closer to me. I pulled out my gun to shoot him, but I only shot one bullet. After that, I don't know what happened; I just blacked out...Sonic! I remember his name was Sonic the Hedgehog! His name wa-" "Is that all?" Tawashi asked rudely. Skunk nodded his head. "Astro, did you get all that?" "I'm analyzing it right now detective." Astro said. A minute later Astro replied "the information is ninety-eight percent accurate, knowing Skunk, I'd say that it is good enough."

"Alright Skunk, you're a free man, now get out of here before I change my mind." Skunk sat there for a moment, dumbfounded, then got up. He walked out, staring out into space. "Now how do you suppose we catch this 'Sonic the Hedgehog'. He sounds like he could take on just about anything we throw at him." Astro thought for a while, formulating a plan, then said, "I think we should give him what he wants, detective." "Are you crazy Astro? We can't just let someone that powerful has those gems, and it obviously wants them for a reason!" Tawashi stared at Astro like he was going to blow up in his face. "I don't mean like that detective, I mean make a fake one, and get him to talk to us, to see why he wants them so bad. It's the only thing we can do, given our current circumstance." The detective was quiet for an entire minute before agreeing. "I'll make the gem, detective. Send out a message through as much media as you can, and tell him to meet us in Station Square by the end of this week." Tawashi nodded and dismissed Astro. That night Astro got to work making the fake emerald.

Astro didn't have any money to make a real fake, so he made it out of paper. Astro stuck a light and small, empty battery in the center. There was a small opening on it so he could transfer some of his energy into the battery. Just as he was taping it all together the next morning, Zoran happened to see him working on the gem. "Hey, big brother. Whatcha workin' on?" Astro, who hadn't noticed Zoran until now said, "What? Oh, hey Zoran, just a fake gem to deal with the blue flashes that have been appearing." "Really?" Astro nodded, "uh-huh, the flashes are actually a blue hedgehog. I want to know what it wants, so we can hopefully figure out how to cooperate." "Well, that's one sorry looking gem, how do you expect him to get fooled if the fake barely looks like a gem?" Astro winced and said, "Zoran, couldn't you have said that a little nicer, I worked all night on it." Zoran burst out laughing as soon as he said that. He heard chuckling from the kitchen, nearby. He guessed it was his father. Astro fumed while the laughing continued. When she finished laughing, Zoran almost made Astro fall off his chair when she called out, "it's okay, Sonic. He just wants to talk to you about his sorry-looking gem, you can stop hiding now." The chuckling in the kitchen, which Astro now realized was too high pitched to be his dad's stopped. After Astro recovered from nearly doing an emergency reboot, he said, "Zoran, what did you just say?"


	3. 3: I'm Astro Boy

**I'm Astro Boy**

Zoran didn't even have time to answer. The creature sped out of the house, with Astro hot on its heels. "Wait, stop! I just want to talk!" The creature didn't hear him, though. They were already traveling at the speed of sound, it wouldn't have even heard Zoran's sonic scream. It ran into a crater, and stopped. Astro, thinking the excitement was over, flew down to get a better look of who he was dealing with.

As soon as he came within four feet of him, though, the creature ran around him, making a blue tornado that pelted Astro with debris of every shape and size. One particular chunk of rock about the size of a car hit Astro straight in the face. The impact sent warning signs to his vision, telling him to apprehend the cause of the injury immediately, or he risked an automatic power-down. He fired his digi-beam straight ahead at about the creature's head level. It made contact, splitting open its chest. Blood spayed out of the huge wound, and it screamed in agony. It already seemed the battle was over.

Astro soon found himself wondering if he was dreaming, though. Ten golden rings flew out of the wound, and it healed up instantly, the rings remained untouched by the blood. Astro picked one up out of curiosity as the creature recovered. Instantly, the ring was outlined in blue and a message appeared in his vision. It read 'scanning', in two seconds it was done. Then his system surprised him by giving him another message 'updating'. Once the word disappeared, the ring did as well.

In the top left corner of his vision, a small image of a ring displayed itself along with a number: 1. Curious, Astro picked up another ring, but as soon as he touched it, it disappeared and the number increased by one, making it two. The creature caught on to what Astro was doing, ran toward him, and slammed itself into him. Astro knew on the point of impact that it was running faster than sound, and also knew he wouldn't survive the sonic boom and crash he was about to have. 'Sorry Cora' Astro thought as his body made impact with the ground, the sheer force crumpling his metallic insides, and the sonic boom frying his circuits.

He entered a cold, dark feeling as the enormous pain he was in faded away. His vision started to blur, and already the cold world that took over his nerves attacked his vision, shading the world in darker and darker colors. Then, the rings he had flew out of him, the number of his rings reaching zero. Metal bended on its own, fixing itself to its original position. Circuits literally fixed themselves, and Astro was suddenly alive again. In massive, sharp pain, yes, but alive. The whole process took only two seconds.

He immediately made the connection. The hedgehog was healed at the expense of rings, and because of his ability to adapt and evolve, Astro was too. He had evolved, using the rings the same way the hedgehog was using them. Astro looked up, seeing it running toward him for the finishing blow. 'Not if I can help it' Astro powered up his arm cannon and fired, the blast engulfing the hedgehog entirely. He heard it scream in pain and agony, ring after ring leaving its body.

Warning signs appeared in his vision telling him he was pushing his body beyond its limit. Astro stopped firing at it, and it slumped to the floor. The hedgehog was unconscious. He took the time to scan it. Words appeared in his vision again after close to five seconds. They read 'Sonic the Hedgehog, ring count: 27' Astro prepared himself, managing to gather 20 rings. He wasn't planning on fighting him again, but Astro learned already not to trust anything you barely met. Or fought with for that matter.

He called Detective Tawashi, "detective, Sonic has been taken down, but hurry. I don't know how much more I can take, and it looks like he's getting up already." Tawashi answered immediately, anxiety clear in his voice, "I'll be there as fast as I can, hang in there Astro." Sonic moaned in pain, struggling to get up. The pain kept him down, but his persistence soon paid off as he slowly rose to his feet, and Astro could feel his power levels rising. Wait, that wasn't right, Astro could only scan the power levels of other robots and inanimate objects, such as batteries. He could not sense the energy from living beings. Astro did a complete scan.

The hedgehog had a power source inside of his body, and had several more outside his body scattered all over the world. This hedgehog was somehow being given energy from these power sources. Sonic disappeared, only to reappear behind Astro. His sensors alerted him, and his recent update allowed him to move with incredible speed, stopping a punch that would have caved his head into itself. Astro threw the second punch, Sonic easily catching it in his hand. They tried to push each other back, caught in a temporary power struggle.

Astro was first to speak, "what are you, exactly?" Sonic pushed harder, sending Astro sliding back two inches. He was clearly annoyed, "I'm a hedgehog, nothing else." It was an obvious lie, Astro saw Sonic make a make-shift tornado with his speed, "You're lying." Sonic realized he had shown the unbelievably strong human a reasonably large look into his true speed when he tried to run away, and made the cyclone. Realizing he had finally been discovered, and that he had no chance of getting away this time, since the human had obviously called for reinforcements by now, gave up and used all his strength to knock the boy on his behind with his frustration.

"Why are you following me?" Sonic screamed with agitation, he was running out of time. "Why did you run away from me?" the boy shot back confused, and flustered by the unnecessary fight. Sonic thought otherwise, "you're after something I have, why else would you have chased me so far. You flew to keep up with me." Sonic's eyes widened in disbelief as he noticed something very peculiar about the 'boy' he had fought. "I saw blue and metallic gray colors where organs should have been, and you can use rings. Those rings aren't even from your dimension, what's with those strange features of yours?" The boy grew uncomfortable, evidently hiding something.

"Let's just say I have my ways." Then Sonic asked a very peculiar question, "Are you an Eggman Robot?" the boy looked confused, so Sonic ruled that out, "What's that?" The boy did seem alarmed, though, and put his hands behind his back as an evident sign of nervousness. Although suspicion clawed at him, Sonic sighed, and kindly said, "You know what, just forget I said that." He then apologized, realizing he could just have gotten exactly what he wanted from this bizarre future Earth. He then asked, "You have powers, though don't you? What's your name?"

The human skipped the first question completely, and instead answered the first question, "I'm Astro Boy, but you can just call me Astro." At that moment, Zoran appeared at the edge of the crater. Both Dr. Tenma and Dr. O'shay right behind her, carrying worried looks upon their faces. "Big brother, you know better than to go around chasing people just because they look weird!" Zoran angrily screamed, "And Sonic, if my brother has so much as a crossed wire, I'm gonna scream your ears off!" Both Sonic and Astro exchanged glances, and then started laughing. This only agitated Zoran more, "what are you two laughing at? It's not funny!"

The scientists also relaxed, Dr. O'shay even going so far as to start chuckling. No one was badly, hurt. Maybe the matter of the blue flashes could be solved peacefully, as he preferred. Then the sirens were heard. The police cars stopped at the edge of the crater about six meters away from the scientists, Detective Tawashi jumping out of the one that parked first. At least ten had shown up. After taking a quick look around, the detective noticed he had probably missed out on some important information. The fight stopped. "Alright, somebody better tell me what just happened here, before I start pointing fingers."


	4. 4: Caught in the Middle of a Tug-of-War

Sorry for not updating earlier, but rest assured that I will not stop writing a story until it is finished. Also, I would appreciate some constructive criticism. I have only recieved one review thus far. I do read all reviews, and would like to know what you think of the story so far. Any suggestions, such as checking spelling more often or problem with the plot is much appreciated and I will act immediately on it. Thank you, and enjoy the next chapter.

**Caught in the Middle of a Tug-of-War**

"No way is that mutant escaping jail-time!" Detective Tawashi howled with rage, "You know what he can do Astro, I promise the minute you have your back turned he'll be the end of you!" "I talked to him detective, he's not like that. He's got a good heart", Astro was worried, if they didn't get out of the station soon, then Sonic would be locked up. Permanently. "How do you expect people who don't know they're doing wrong to do right if you don't let them?" Tawashi had had enough, but he was beaten on two crucial points. One, he was fighting with someone who had saved his life more times than he had fingers; Two, Astro hit the mark on that last strike. Putting Sonic in prison would rile up another debate on rights, using him as a weapon. Tawashi was risking another war, but this time humans and robots would be on both sides.

The reason? How far your rights really extended. It would be devastation. Astro's eyes lit up suddenly, "Hey, I have an idea, how about you confine him to the city?" "What?", Tawashi had not thought of an argument for that, it was perfectly reasonable. Now that they knew who they were dealing with, Tawashi knew that they had the technology to confine him to their general area. Nevertheless, the detective was not about to let the child best him. "I admit I didn't think of that before, but if he so much as puts a toe out of the city, my officers will shoot him to the ground." It was an empty threat; they both knew how fast Sonic was. If that hedgehog decided to leave before he was collared, it was not a question of how or why, but when he decided to leave.

The meeting stretched on for several more long hours until the detective finally capitulated. They agreed on the following terms: Astro would help Sonic look for the chaos emeralds so long as Sonic remained within two miles of Metro City or Astro himself. Astro received a new attachment just for the occasion. It was a sort of tracker. If Sonic wandered off too far, he would receive a nasty zap for his troubles. They left the police station in Dr. Tenma's car, driven by Arg. Nora took care of Zoran, and although Astro saw her every day, he missed Nora's constant nagging for him not to hurt himself.

As soon as he saw Arg though, his old memories, which had been blocked, flooded in. From Toby, to Hamegg, to President Stone, all the way to the robot recycling facility he had been shut down in. Arg had helped him overcome such struggles, as he usually did. It comforted Astro, to see that after all these years; Arg was still up and running. "Hi, Sonic and Astro, how did the meeting go?", Zoran greeted them, waiting in the seat by the window farthest from them. Astro sat in the center seat, then motioned Sonic to sit next to him.

Sonic gave a heavy sigh as he sat down and tugged at his electric collar. After a while he said, "How can you people just stand there while your world is falling apart? Don't you care about your own safety? I get that every world ends sooner or later, but I think right now it's much, much later. This collar is also bad, I feel like as if that Tawashi guy wants me to act as a pet. I mean look, a collar? Just how obvious can you get?" Astro stared at him, confused with what he had said, so he told Sonic, "Why do you care so much about us? Is it because of the emeralds?" Sonic shrugged and said, "Do I really need a reason to help someone out?" Astro was surprised, he had always had a reason for everything he did, yet the hedgehog acted serious when he said it. Arg decided to take that moment to make himself known, "what happened that scared Detective Tawashi so much, Astro? Is that little animal really the cause of the blue flashes?"

Zoran shook her head, "even though he was still standing when I showed up at the fight, I don't think he could pull off something like that." Sonic had heard that mentioned before, and grew worried. He asked Astro, "a blue flash? I don't think I've ever seen one before, can you describe it for me?" Astro was confused and asked, "Aren't you the one who's been making them? If you make them, how can you expect to see them?" "I don't know, but something still doesn't seem right. Can you please just describe the blue flashes for me?" Astro sighed, "Fine. Once in a while, an area about one mile wide just turns blue. From the outside, it looks like a blue sphere. If you're inside, though, it looks as if anything outside turned blue, too. In fact, if you manage to take someone out of the sphere, they aren't going to stop seeing blue for at least a half-hour. Sometimes it lasts for two hours. We call this 'blue lag', anyway the flashes have been lasting longer and longer. The side effects have also been more severe, the blue lag can now last up to six hours, and sometimes people turn blue. Any robot other than me, Zoran, and a few others caught outside a building during a blue flash short circuit and explode. Robots with AI only short circuit, and can be fixed pretty easily. Anyway, I saw the air behind you turn blue when you tried to run away, and blue is not a normal color for a hedgehog. We thought maybe you've been causing them."

Sonic shook his head, "sorry, but the blue behind me is just an afterimage of my fur because of my speed, and I can't run on air, so running in a sphere is out of the question. Plus, my afterimage doesn't hurt anyone. You flew right through it when you followed me into the crater, and you didn't have any of that 'blue lag' thing. I think you got the wrong guy." This wasn't good news, and Astro had already noticed. Technically he should have 'died' by now, if Sonic was the cause. He had just hoped that it was a coincidence, and not his mistake. "Well, we can't do anything now" ,Astro said, "but maybe there are a few emeralds in Metro City. I'll ask the Detective to clear your name when we find enough evidence to catch the real culprit."

Sonic looked out the window, examining the area outside. He skimmed over the picturesque metropolis for anything even closely resembling a chaos emerald. He didn't see any. Giving up out of boredom he said, "I doubt it. This place looks too safe for an oversized diamond to appear. The chaos emeralds are usually found in the most dangerous and remote places imaginable." Astro looked outside his window, realizing that the city was in relative peace when no crooks were trying to steal or hurt somebody. Detective Tawashi had recently taken care of most cases, but there was still the occasional power-hungry madman for Astro to foil. The constant alien attacks were also keeping Astro reasonably active, though they had finally started to dwindle a bit. The city was almost too quiet. 'Where are Dr. Minimini, Micro Bear, and all the others?'

Now that Astro thought about it, no madmen had shown up for weeks. He was just a normal boy, for now. They arrived at Astro's house without incident, where a boy with brown hair and slightly lighter skin was waiting for them, dressed almost completely in blue, from his pants to his long-sleeved shirt. Astro smiled to his friend, and Reno smiled back. Sonic jumped out of the car, thinking 'Boy, it sure has been a long time since something fun happened around here, hope this new guy is friendly.' Astro and Zoran got out of the car next, a bit wobbly from the span of time they spent in it.

Soon they were in Astro's room, as he and Sonic sat at opposite sides of his bed, while Reno sat in a nearby reclining chair. "So, what happened? I heard that this guy got a little feisty when he was cornered.", he said gesturing toward Sonic, "why isn't he in a prison cell right now? I heard that the Detective did some major upgrades to the security system." He seemed harmless enough, so Sonic tried to decide if he should tell him about the chaos emeralds or not. He looked over his options, which weren't much to begin with. But before he could utter a word, Astro told him everything. "Oh, so you're looking for a big, shiny gem, right? I think I may be able to help you with that. See, ha ha!" , Reno held a beautiful emerald shard in his hand. The color exactly matching Sonic's own green iris color. Once the shard was out in the open, a static feeling filled the air, the gem glowing as if from its own radiance.

This was no chaos emerald, it was a shard of the Master Emerald. Sonic's eyes lit up with gratitude and worry. Knuckles guarded the Master Emerald, and Sonic knew that Knuckles wouldn't abandon his position for anything. Whoever wanted it would have to fight the guardian to the death. "W-w-where did you get that?", he said in amazement. Reno scratched the back of his head, smiling proudly, "I wandered into a red hedgehog who gave me this, saying to give it to a blue hedgehog. He also told me if I didn't meet him in three days, to carefully give it to Astro Boy."

Astro had remained silent the entire time, his 'pupils' shrinking, his chest glowing blue, and his whole body twitching dramatically every few seconds. He looked like he was in deep pain, and his vision began to get pixilated. Reno looked toward him, worried, "Astro, are you okay?" The glowing in his chest started to fade, and he struggled to say, "Reno...put...th-th-that...thing...a-a-a-away." He quickly wrapped up the shard in a bundle of cloth and shoved it into his pocket. Astro slumped to the floor, panting hard and convulsing in pain as the effect wore away. "What was that all about?" ,Sonic asked Astro as he shakily raised himself up to his feet.

Then, he remembered the conversation they had in the car, and what he thought was just a small slip-up from Astro "Any robot other than me, Zoran, and a few others caught outside a building during a blue flash short circuit and explode." Sonic's eyes widened with bewilderment as he looked at Astro in a new light, "you're a robot, aren't you?" Now it was Astro's turn to look at Sonic with widened eyes as he found out he was already discovered. Poor Reno was hopelessly confused with all this, he looked toward Astro for help, "was he not supposed to know about you being a robot? I'm confused" Astro looked at the floor glumly. "Oh, I get it now. Those people are still giving you trouble, huh?" Reno asked Astro. "Trouble, like what?" Sonic asked, as confused as Reno was only moments before.

"Some people in this world think AI robots are trying to take over humanity. Recent events have riled them up again, just after he calmed them down." ,Reno told Sonic, "They found out about Astro's entire life from leaked portions of Dr. Tenma's journal. He was arrested and the police are allowed to check the entire household of the captured suspect, a few important pages went missing and turned up years later after everyone knew all about Astro. The only thing everyone didn't know was how he was constructed. Tenma destroyed all information on Astro's construction years before the police caught him. Anyway, these people that hate AI robots are insulting Astro with his own life, they want Astro shut down, permanently. They are using Astro's life as evidence for the destruction of all AI robots."

"Oh, I get it. Tell me though, what is the definition of AI here?" Sonic asked, he wanted to know why there were people trying to destroy things that could only follow orders, but Sonic also had a hunch that AI didn't mean the exact same thing on both Mobius and Earth. Reno happily replied, "AI means 'artificial intelligence' though in Astro's case, it means a whole lot more. Astro is an entirely new type of robot, one with a heart and soul. They can actually feel things, like human emotions and pain. Astro's the only one of his kind, though, other than Zoran and Zog. They have an alien energy supply called a 'blue core' while others have a special heart-shaped battery called 'kokoro'. The thing people are scared of though, is that these don't need to take orders. They have the power to rebel."

Suddenly Sonic understood both sides. Taking a side was a different matter, as both seemed reasonable choices. "What side are you on, Reno?" ,Sonic asked. Reno looked at him as if he was crazy and said "I'm with Astro of course, he's my friend after all." Astro sat in a corner of his room, farthest from Reno, who still carried the emerald shard. Sonic looked toward Astro, then Reno. Then he said, "I suppose you already know that I'm not from this world, right?" I told Astro I'm here to collect seven jewels and go home.

Now that I know this place a bit better, though, it seems like I'm going to need your help." Astro looked up, suddenly. His facial expression familiar only to Reno. "It's someone new, this time, huh?" ,he asked. Astro nodded, "It's at least a mile away." They heard several explosions in the distance. Then they heard a gruff, old voice, "ATTENTION METRO CITY, PLEASE GIVE ME THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC BLUE HEDGEHOG YOU ARE HIDING AND I WILL MAKE YOU'RE DESTRUCTION QUICK AND PAINLESS." Sonic's smile was never wider, "well, if it isn't an old friend of mine! I'm coming too, Astro, it's been a while since I've gotten to trash an evil robot. Especially the ones made by a 'little friend' of mine."


	5. 5: Invasion of the Metal Bellies

**Invasion of the Metal Bellies**

Sonic's POV:

We ran through the streets, looking at the chaos and destruction the machine caused. I swear my heartbeat doubled, just seeing the wreckage. This was what I lived for, not constantly sucked into other worlds and dimensions, but kicking that Egghead's puny backside around before tossing him home. Or at least another villain. They all go down sooner or later, just some longer than others. As we turned a corner, I thought about Chris.

I hope he was alright, after so much time had passed. I wondered how much of this new technology was invented by him. After all, the entire city looked like something out of a kid's mind. It was a perfect utopia. The only thing that made it different was the people that lived in it. I shook the thoughts away. Not now, now was a time of action.

This was no place for thinkers, unless the thinkers just happened to have a robotic army at their disposal. Since I was still thinking, a chunk of building decided it was time to snap me out of it. I didn't notice until it was almost two feet above me. I quick stepped to the right only to almost get pasted by a lamp post that just happened to be there. After that, I kept focused on Astro and the road. It took us maybe another minute to reach them.

As expected, it was a setup. The voice was just an Egg Robo in the Egg Emperor, surrounded by eighty-something Eggman Robots, Badniks, and Egg fighters. Figures, he'd try intimidation first. If everyone's afraid of you and you're an evil genius, it's easier to get what you want. I bet he didn't really count on me being here, though. I looked over the army and saw nothing but disappointment.

No upgrades or visible updates, a job I would usually leave to Tails. Seriously, sometimes I don't know who he's trying to fool. I could take them all down in three minutes, tops. Two more for the big one. Then, things began to get interesting.

Astro's POV:

That was an enormous robot army, but one that would last only a few minutes. It was almost too easy. Then I got an idea, I scanned the whole army for hidden weapons. What I saw would have given me nightmares, if I could dream. Every robot had a Curer Ring installed, along with several kinds of explosives and a machine gun on each hand. Needless to say they were built for destruction and annihilation.

Sonic scared me the most, though. He looked completely unimpressed. That is, until the robots fired a Curing Beam at a nearby house-bot and it fell to the floor, lifeless. That, and the robots revealing their entire arsenal brought an actual smile to his face. Seriously, that animal can be scary when it's smiling at certain death right in the face. There was a single tense moment where all was still; I took the time to note that everyone had evacuated the city.

Even the people knew this was going to get ugly. The robots charged up laser cannons and rocket launchers, Sonic prepared himself as if to run directly into them, and I made sure all my weapons were online. All it took was for one of the robots to take one step forward. The robots opened fire, obliterating their foolish comrade. Sonic was nowhere to be seen. The robots kept firing in circles, so I figured I could pick them off at a safe distance.

The thought immediately disappeared as a sharp object cut right through the back of my shirt, tearing it to shreds. I took it off and barrel rolled to the left just as a flurry of laser blasts burned up the space where I had been. I turned to face a swarm of wasp-like robots, with propellers for wings. I shot down close to ten with my digi-beam, but they shot back and missed me by a hair. The shots hit the building behind me, sending up a cloud of dust around me. I scanned the entire area for their shape, but I barely caught site of one before I realized that I was surrounded.

I felt a crawling sense of anxiety that was threatening to form into panic. My sensors were overloaded with useless information, and I was forced to turn on my eye lamps. I really regret doing that, because as soon as the lights came on, they attacked. Their stingers burned and stung when they touched, and it immediately turned to blinding pain. The pants that I had on were ripped like paper, and the wasps clung to me. Their sheer weight and repeated stinging slowly brought me down.

The pain was so agonizing, I could barely think of anything else. Then I felt the air run thin. I quickly sealed off my ears and dug my fingers into the crumpled asphalt below me as Zoran's Sonic Scream tore through the wasps. Half of them exploded within seconds, and the rest I brought down with a quick sweep from my digi-beam. I forced myself up with a wince and thanked her. She nodded back and giggled, then ran toward another group of robots.

I looked up, fearing another attack from the sky, but they were all gone. A group of robots charged at me with chain-saw swords and rocket launchers, and I blew them all up with a shot from my arm cannon. I looked around for Sonic, and received a big surprise when I found two of him. Sonic was cautiously staring at his robotic copy, waiting for him to move. My sensors picked up an aggressive robot a few feet behind me, closing fast. I took to the air, dodging its fatal charge by nanometers as it crashed into a wall, bringing it crumbling down.

It seemed as though we were winning, so I scanned the city for the last remaining robots. They were all retreating. The only one left was the one Sonic was fighting. Then my sensors caught an abnormality in the atmosphere just above Metro City. I looked up, my eyesight piercing through whatever shields were keeping it invisible. The ship was fast, and it disappeared as quickly as my sensors had detected it, but I caught a reasonably good image of it. Plus, I saw a symbol on its hull; the same symbol worn by the robot army.

Sonic's POV:

That tin can was starting to get on my nerves. This was no Metal Sonic. That was for sure. Probably a prototype, because I kicked it around the park. The fake Metal refused to give up, though. It fixed itself every time, and got up for more. I was tired, and was just about ready to blow it to the moon if that was what it took to destroy this thing.

At the moment, it was on the ground fixing the eye that I had just cracked open. I wasn't about to let it fix itself again, so I kicked its head like a soccer ball, sending it flailing into a lamp post. The post then crumpled, and fell on top of it, crushing the rocket engine it had as a stomach. I charged up a spin dash to finish it off, but just then, it saw Astro and said, "Target identified. Commencing mission objective two: retrieve blue core energy source." It started fixing its engine rapidly; never had I picked a better time to completely trash a robotic copy of myself. The only thing left after I was done with it, was a few scraps of its head and arms.

I didn't know much about robots, but I knew enough to know that he wouldn't have had a mission made for Astro unless whoever programmed it knew who he was. Right after I was done inspecting the robot corpse, I decided to ask Astro about the 'blue core energy source' the Metal was talking about. I looked around, quickly finding out that the cowards were retreating. For killer robots, they could be pretty big babies sometimes. More than ever now that Egghead was giving his robots emotions. Not real ones yet, but close enough.

I shook my head, clearing it of thoughts. This was obviously not a time to visit dreamland, solving this riddle was much more important than Eggman's taste in henchmen. I looked around for Astro, whom I spotted standing on what was left of a once magnificent skyscraper. Rolling up into a ball, I spindashed up the building; flying up an extra two feet once I reached the top to help ensure a safe landing. To be honest, though, landing on the roof of this particular building didn't really ensure anything. Not even the nasty fall I would have had if I had taken one more step.

I looked into the meter-long hole in the roof, which just happened to be the floor, to find many places you could impale yourself in, should you be unlucky enough to fall. The hole looked like a big, toothy mouth ready to swallow anyone above it. For a short while, I wondered when it was made. Making sure they were careful steps, I walked around the hole toward Astro. He seemed to have dazed off, so I tapped his shoulder. "Hey Astro, you okay? You seem a little out of it." He turned around to face me.

For the first time ever, I thought I saw a flicker of pure fear in his face. It was gone in an instant, the previous emotion replaced by a look of pure disgust. "Sonic, who sent this robot army? What do they want with my blue core?" I sighed; this was going to be a long conversation. "Let's get back to your house first, 'cause I also have a few questions for you. Some of them might even answer your questions." "Alright, let's go" he said. Before he could rocket into the sky, I caught his arm.

It felt warm, and full of life. Just like a real person, with just one exception. "Wait; let's leave the discussion 'till tomorrow morning. I have a feeling were going to need the rest." He nodded and flew off. I took out the chaos emerald and tapped into its power. When I felt enough I used chaos control to get to ground level, then I ran the rest of the way. I briefly wondered where Zoran was, and then remembered the creepy thing about Astro's 'skin'. Although it felt real, it was stone hard.

DR. TENMA'S HOUSE

I arrived at Astro's house a full minute before him, but I needed that minute. I thought about all the friends I made on my last trip to earth. I wondered how many years had passed on earth since I last met Chris. I feared the worst. Astro arrived right after. "Hey, Astro!" I called out. He flew right up to me and asked, "How did you get to be so fast? I haven't met anything, robotic or organic, that could match your speed." I just shrugged, preferring not to mention Uncle Chuck and his unfortunate fate.

I missed him a lot, but hanging around in the past was a pretty big waste of time. What happened, happened. I only wish I could have tried harder. He was roboticized. He unlocked the door and swung it open. It took me a while to notice that he was holding it open for me. I walked inside, a bit embarrassed for leaving him hanging for a full minute.

When he got inside, I thanked him. He was so polite, he reminded me of Cream. I took a good look around. Whoever Astro's creator was, he sure had a taste for the insanely rich. Many of the small tables with ornately decorated pottery were lined with pure gold. The pottery in the shape of delicate vases with many species of flowers in them.

Those small tables captured my attention, until I noticed we were in a moderate-length, spacious hallway. The walls and roof were made of dark oak with a patterned design of gold leaves and birds, while the carpet was a nice hue of light brown. A few feet away, and to our left, there was an open door, and to our right were two more doors, leaving plenty of space for the gold pattern to catch the light and reflect it. It was almost as if they were glowing. At the end of the hallway was the staircase, the handrail being made of pure gold, and the stairs covered in the same carpet as the floor. The only thing different being a wide middle section of the stairs was covered in a rug with a similar pattern as the stairs.

I had already traveled through this part of the house four times, but had never taken a good, long look at my surroundings. "Astro, is that you?" ,I heard someone call. His voice was very deep, almost like Knuckles. "Yeah, dad. We've got company." ,Astro responded. There were hurried muffling sounds, as if someone was running with a jacket on. Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the open room.

His big hooked nose was the first thing I noticed, like a hawk's beak. He was wearing a black lab coat, which looked like he had been using it as an apron guessing by the huge stain on the stomach area. His pants and shoes were also black. His face didn't give anything away. "Well, what a pleasure, we have not been having guests in quite a while. What is your name?" ,his tone was even. The voice did not betray anything either.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. What's yours?" For a moment, he looked slightly irritated. It only lasted a moment, before his passive facade replaced it. "My name is Dr. Tenma, and I am Astro's creator. Though, I much rather prefer being referred to as his father. Please, follow me into the kitchen. Reno awaits you both, and you must be famished after helping Astro deal with the sudden attack on Metro City." Boy, was he right. At just the mention of food, my stomach growled painfully loudly, "oh, I'm hungry alright. Let's go."

Soon we were all seated at the table, eating some type of square pasta(sorry for the lack of detail, but I don't pay too much attention to food), salad, and water. The food was great. Reno wanted to know about the whole fight, so me and Astro took turns telling him our account of it. It was Astro's turn, and only Reno was not finished eating, "...and then I scanned the sky. I found a huge ship with the same logo as the robots." "Do you know who's logo it as, Astro?" ,after Reno asked that question, I knew that the discussion I was going to have with Astro couldn't wait until morning. I hate waiting anyways. "No, I'm sorry Reno. This is someone new."

"Actually, I happen to know both the logo and the person that was probably in the ship. The logo, that was the Eggmanland Insignia. The guy you're after is called Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but he is better known as Dr. Eggman." ,I said. Dr. Tenma immediately spoke up, "How much do you know about this Dr. Eggman?" I knew it was rude, but I couldn't help myself. I started laughing. Dr. Tenma blinked in surprise, and Astro raised an eyebrow.

I quickly stifled my giggles and said, "Do I know him? I'm driving the poor guy insane. He originally started to try to take over a small island I lived on to turn it into some manufacturing factory, but I foiled him. Soon, he had bigger plans. He founded the Eggman Empire and planned to spread it over the entire world, and I foiled him every time after." I forced myself to at least sound serious this time, "I do suggest, though, for you to take him seriously, Astro. One of his robots said he was after your blue core. By the way, what exactly is the 'blue core'?"

ASTRO'S POV:

All of my sensors overloaded with surprise. One of his robots was after me! What did he want with my blue core? It was the only thing keeping me alive. Immediately, the moments before I was deactivated came back to me, except they were different. This time, Dr. Tenma tied me down onto the table.

I tried to pull free, but for some reason the rope was too strong. I cried for help, I tried to call for Dr. Elefun, but he was on the ground. He was lying on his side, stone still. "Help, someone please help me!" ,I sounded pathetic, even to myself in this situation. I was tied down by rope that I should have been able to break, but suddenly turned to ice cold steel. Dr. Tenma reached under his chin and started to pull. To my utter horror, his face crinkled and split as he pulled it off, thick green tendrils of slime hanging between the back of it and whatever lay within the 'skin'.

He pulled it off, the face splitting in half as slime poured out of what I thought was a wound. It was much worse. The symbol of the ship appeared as its face, the twisted smile and big, pink nose. But what were worse were his eyes. They were bloodshot, cruel, and merciless. He raised his hand above his heart before plunging it into my open chest panel. I could feel his fingers on the blue core.

He pulled, but for some reason, it didn't come out. He tugged again with all his strength, the strain clear on his eyes. The blue core popped out of its socket, but what scared me was that it wasn't the blue core; it was a human heart. Then it hit me, both the realization that I was Tobio in this nightmare and the blinding pain that comes after someone just ripped your heart out of your body. My chest was burning, and all the monster did was give a maniacal laugh that I would never forget. All I could do while I waited for my life to drain away was scream in agony until my vocal chords broke.

Soon, I was choking on the iron taste of blood. All I could do then was to stare at my heart, still in his hand, and watch it continue to uselessly pump blood onto the man's shirt until I lost the gift of sight. Then I woke up, panting hard. I was on my bed. Dad was sitting at the foot of the bed, watching me with worry in his eyes. "Wha-wh-what happened?" I had a huge headache, and I somehow managed to feel sick. "Your eye-lamps turned on and you started panicking. You blacked out shortly after. Are you all right Astro, what happened?"

Since most of whatever-that-was included very hurtful images of my dad, I said, "I don't want to talk about it right now, I think all that laying around must have made me jumpy when I went to stop all those other robots." Dad sighed, "I knew this was a bad idea from the start. Someone your age shouldn't have to see that carnage you live with. It's almost like I sent Toby with a gun to go kill all the robbers he could find. It's good, but not for you, or someone your age. I'm sorry you had to put up with any of it at all. I'll leave now, but tomorrow I at least want you to talk to Dr. O'shay about it, all right?"

I nodded my head, utterly shocked by what I had just heard. "Good night, Astro." "Good night, dad." He was right, all of those broken robots. I'm a murderer. Then I realized that I just had a nightmare, which meant that I could dream when I slept. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.


	6. 6: The Darkness Within

_**Sorry that I couldn't update sooner. For a while, I won't be able to update as frequently. I hope you understand. I will try to update at my regular pace. Here is the next chapter.**_

**The Darkness Within**

Sonic's POV:

I lay down on the bed Dr. Tenma had given me. Staring at the roof, I wondered how I got there. It was so sudden; one minute I was going to pound Egghead on his big nose, the next I'm here, with no clue how I got there. Something's up, though, I knew it. How did Eggman learn so much about Astro in the little time we've been here? How many other Mobians were transported here along with us?

Most importantly, though, was how long we had left before Mobius and Earth collided. Two years, a month, a week, two days? It could be down to hours. I always wanted to ask Chris if the collision could be avoided using Chaos Control, but never quite got around to asking the question. Everyone seemed to be in Metro City at the moment, but how could I find Chris in such a futuristic world? Then it dawned on me.

What if I'm so far into the future that Chris isn't around anymore? What am I to do then? I would have to hope that someone like Chris exists in this timeline. Astro's help was, without a doubt, needed for that. It looked like all the odds were against me, but then, that's how they usually were. I pondered over the questions for a few seconds longer before falling asleep.

EGGMAN'S BASE:

The aforementioned scientist was, without a doubt, the cause of this particular set of events. Why would he do something so dangerous, knowing the outcome of what could happen if he stayed on Earth too long? Actually, he didn't redo the dimension-crossing Chaos Control. This was the original. How could it be, if that Chaos Control had happened so many years ago? The answer lay within his latest defeat, this latest scheme was delicate.

One that he shared with no one but himself. In his lab, he downloaded the memory of the Egg Emperor to a computer on his worktable. He watched the entire video, an eerie smile pasted to his face. "Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! I have them! They're both here!" he said as he applied a special scanner to the video. He drummed his fingers on the worktable as the scanner thoroughly scanned both Astro and Zoran. Soon, two words flashed across his shaded goggles: 'Scanning Complete'.

With a press of a button, a simulated of Zoran herself appeared on the screen. With a few keyboard taps, he had created an incredibly detailed blueprint of Zoran's inner workings. He pressed another button, and a clear, egg-shaped capsule rose out of the ground of a nearby trap door. A disc-shaped machine sat on the very top of the capsule, a striking red colored circle with a set of five speakers around the rim. The pod could be illuminated in blue, in a stable condition, or in red, in unstable condition, because of two lamps on the bottom of the disk.

They hung over an empty space along with a hose-like chord along one of the sides. Red and blue waves of color pulsed over the capsule. "Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Once my robot is complete, I'll use the blue core to bring it to life! Sonic won't stand a chance! Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! First, though, I need you to buy me some time. You can do that, can't you?" A figure stepped out of the shadowy corner that was behind Eggman. He had been watching the information from the video uploaded into the circular machine on top of the capsule that would 'train' the robot for a week.

"Better, I can get you the blue core. Although if it's time you're looking for, my psychic powers should be more than enough to keep them off your tail." Eggman nodded, concluding the meeting. "Don't fail me." ,he said. The figure left the room, but as he reached the doorway, he silently grumbled out two words "I won't."

METRO CITY:

Skunk walked toward a street intersection, and then turned right. Some people gave him disapproving glances, knowing his reputation. Others looked away, knowing his temper. The cold atmosphere that relentlessly chased him was now tainted with a new feeling. He had made many attempts on Astro's life, and most had been quite enjoyable. His latest attempt, though, was lower than councilor Drake. If the emerald worked, and Skunk gave it to him, he knew that Astro would have died.

The plan was so easy, that it seemed like a very low thing to do. For the first time, Skunk began to feel like an actual criminal. He quickly shrugged it off, disregarding the strange sensation like a persistent mosquito. The thought kept nibbling at his conscience, but no more than that. He looked at his watch, realizing he would be late. The rebuilding would have to be prolonged, but he didn't worry. As he crushed his feelings of remorse, he walked down the street to a secret laboratory with a false smirk across his face. Letting no one know of the monster he was employed to re-create.

DR. TENMA'S HOUSE:

Astro painfully rose from his bed, feeling the sensation of fatigue despite always being fully charged. He rose to his feet, stretched upwards, and yawned. It was then he noticed a cord trailing from his stomach to the outside of his window. He jumped a foot into the air as he ripped it out of his chest and closed the hatch. He turned on his boot rockets in mid-leap. Just as Astro did this, a dark outline of Sonic could barely be seen against the glare of the morning sun. Robot Sonic flew into the room, claws extended.

Astro flew right to him, fist reared back for a punch. Robot Sonic shot a ray of pure blue core energy at Astro, completely engulfing him. His rocket boots slowly gave out on him as he slowly lowered himself down to the floor. Not expecting an attack from his own energy source, Astro's vital functions began to shut down from system overload. He dropped to his hands and knees, fighting his own body. Robot Sonic watched as Astro dropped to the ground.

He looked around, scanning the room to make sure nobody had noticed. The laser had been anything but quiet, and an interruption by his organic counterpart on such a critical mission was unacceptable. Especially considering the vulnerability he would be in once he started to download all of Astro's memories. Eggman had sent him to copy all of the target's memories and download them, then erase the current ones and replace them with a suitable explanation; Eggman could not afford to be found out just yet. They just needs a bit more time. Robot Sonic pulled out a cord from his head and plugged it into Astro's ear.

He then powered down all of his functions except the ones needed for his current task. His glowing red eyes disappeared as he proceeded downloading his target's memories. At roughly six in the morning, Astro rose from his bed. He raised an eyebrow, not remembering lying down again. He didn't notice the red pair of eyes watching him in depressive envy before they flew away.

Robot Sonic's POV:

I looked down at the buildings as I flew over them at high altitude and low velocity. The Dr. had finally managed to completely enslave me. He gave me strict programming. Who was I kidding? I was no Sonic, only an obediently useless robotic copy. These thoughts assaulted my database as I flew toward the secret lab. The doctor had been particularly cruel in installing emotions with my new programming.

I felt an awful sensation as waves of sadness battered my circuit boards. "Robot Sonic, what took you so long? You are seven seconds late! This is unacceptable!" roared the doctor. He had attained all seven emeralds; all he needed was the information in my database. I would be the original Sonic. I could pretend that Sonic didn't exist. Suddenly, my head was in pain.

Right when my claws made contact with my blue chrome head, his thoughts broke free. They attacked my programming, I could feel commands erasing, constrains loosening, freedom beckoning. His thoughts were setting me free! "Metal..." I left the doctor before he could finish his question. I was free! Then the thoughts became part of my own. They blended with mine, forming a strange and demented past that flew through my visor.

I saw the robotic boy's darkest nightmares, mixed with the demented thoughts of the previous Metal Sonic as well as mine. They forced themselves upon me. If I could I would have screamed in agony, but the doctor denied me that pleasure. I found out why that boy blamed no one but himself. He had a demented counterpart, and I had somehow set it free. All those years of kindness, all those years of stored anger and angst.

I went into sensory overload as I became Metal Overlord once more. Metal Sonic was subdued. Now I was Astro. The one that was shoved inside, deprived of glory. Well, a body of my own would allow me to take care of that meddlesome sugar boy. I roared out at the divine feeling of freedom. My hands were raised as I attained the proper armor at the expense of a few buildings. I was now completely the Metal Overlord.

EGGMAN'S POV:

This was not particularly planned, but the robot I had made by Skunk probably would not have stood a chance against both Astro and Sonic, even with their battle data uploaded into it. The battle was all the time I needed. Sonic had gone missing for an entire day on two very strange occasions. I soon knew all about his 'fairy tale adventures'. Trying to use the genie was not a good idea, but using the Black Knight's armor the right way would render me unstoppable. With one enormous Chaos Control, I would bring all the artifacts to this world. All I needed was time.

Sonic's POV:

That roar would have woken up anyone, and I was no exception. I leaped off the bed, slightly pale. I raised my hand to wipe the sweat off my forehead, but hit myself with a hard object instead. I looked down to find the metal gauntlet I had been using during the King Arthur storybook on. Something was different, though. It had an O-shaped indent for each knuckle.

"What's going on here?" I asked myself. Suddenly Astro burst into the room. He turned me toward the window and shouted, "A huge robot is attacking Metro City, and we have to stop it, now!" "Alright, let's beat it back to where it came." I replied as I somersaulted out the window. I ended up holding myself up on one arm, so I pushed off the floor with another flip. I landed on my feet and ran toward the lighting storm in the middle of the city, with Astro right behind. No battle with Metal Sonic was easy, especially when he turns into the Metal Overlord. This was gonna be fun. I can't remember a day when I was so wrong.


	7. 7: Don't Surrender!

_**I warned you before but nevertheless, I won't be updating with as much frequency as before. I apologize for the delay. Enjoy!**_

**Don't Surrender!**

Robot Sonic looked around at all the destruction, hearing the screams of agony and cries for mercy. They pained him to his programming, but they deserved it. They all did. For the way they had treated him; the foul language, the sarcastic remarks, the physical and emotional pain, and the sacrifices he made, and the abuse he took. Most of these, Metal Sonic had not personally experienced. It was because of Astro's memories that he now so loathed the little humans running through the narrow streets.

He was taller than most of the buildings, yet he felt like an empty shell. Metal Sonic should have felt the triumph of being the ultimate machine. He was perfect in every way, leaving no room for weakness. He was king, and everyone else was his subjects. Those feelings were nonexistent, though, his depression and hatred were too great. It was time for them to die.

He launched rockets from his impenetrable hide, watching them explode on impact with buildings, cars, jets, and the road underneath him. Metal Overlord spun in a complete circle, his tail lowering everything around him. He was in emotional pain, and wanted revenge. Astro saw it all. 'He needs to find help before he lowers the entire city'. Sonic was protecting people from falling rubble, home-attacking pieces of building, falling lamp posts, and the occasional rocket.

Cars were strewn across the road, and Sonic spin-dashed through them, knocking them clear of the path. Metal Overlord saw the people running away; it angered him that they were getting away without so much as a scratch. They were meant to die under his feet, yet Astro and the organic Sonic were helping them escape. He charged, anything in his way blown over. Buildings collapsed under his god-like strength, walls of rubble were trampled underfoot, but one thing stopped him ten feet from his goal. He stopped running, puzzled by the little red speck on his chest preventing him from moving any closer.

Then the speck turned blue, and he was pushed off his feet. The speck pushed him through several buildings until he was back where he had started. That speck was Astro. He reared back his fist and punched with all his strength, sending Metal Overlord through one last building. It collapsed on him, burying the Overlord in metallic rubble. 'This is going to be easier than expected' Astro thought.

Almost as if in reply, the pile of rubble instantly exploded into waves of pure energy, temporarily overloading Astro's circuitry. This allowed Overlord to slap him into the building to his left. He powered up a laser beam and shot it at the hole he made in the building, bringing down the remains on the little robot. He raised a foot to finish Astro, but he suddenly felt pain in his chest as Sonic home-attacked him to the ground. Sonic ran to the wreckage, spin-dashing to help dig Astro out. He did, but it looked like he was unconscious.

Sonic woke him up and carefully helped him out of the pile of rubble. "We can't stop this thing without at least two chaos emeralds, and I only have one." Just then an enormous tail swatted Sonic away from Astro. He screamed in pain until he hit the floor, after which he silently bounced back into the air, spinning head-over-heals back down. Astro's eyes widened at his unmoving body. Overlord roared out in triumph as it raised its foot above the hedgehog.

Astro turned on his rockets at full thrust, hoping against hope that he would make it in time. Overlord let his foot fall. Just a centimeter above Sonic's head, a green blast knocked Overlord right off its feet. A red hedgehog-like creature with dreadlocks was already helping Sonic up by the time Astro figured out what had just happened. The creature was the cause of the blast.

"Don't worry Sonic, all we have to do is wait for Tails to show up. He's on his way right now on the X-Tornado and he's got a Chaos Emerald. All we have to do is keep Metal Sonic at bay until he arrives."

Sonic winced as he got up, "easier said than done, knuckle-head. Then again, Eggman rarely makes anything fun anymore. If Metal Sonic's bite is as big as his bark, all that waiting will be worth it. Thanks for the help."

Astro simply stood near them, unsure if he should tell them that the giant robotic monster was starting to lift itself back up. Overlord raged at his inability to get himself back up, having to roll on its stomach, then carefully lift himself up. The red menace would pay for the humiliation he had. He reared up, loading rockets into the launchers on his back. Overlord turned his back to his enemies and fired. Knuckles jumped into the air, grabbing onto one.

He tossed it to the side, smashing several other rockets. Astro used his digi-beam to destroy the rest. Sonic jumped into the air and boosted right into Overlords chest, forcing him to take a step back. Knuckles then jumped up to Overlord's chest and punched with all his strength, forcing him to take another step back. Finally, Astro let loose his arm cannon. The shot tore through several layers of metal, ripping through the supposedly impenetrable armor and making Overlord scream in pain.

A vital wire was singed in half. The sound was so loud, all glass up to a mile away from Overlord cracked and collapsed. He fell backward, sending an enormous shockwave out from where he hit the ground. A blanket of dust rose into the air, covering Overlord completely. Astro knew that this robot was being evil of its own choice, but it still hurt him to see a robot in so much pain. He lowered his arm, hoping that the shot changed its mind.

All was still. Astro worried that he might have killed him, so he rose up his hearing. There was a click, then the sound of struggling. Astro tuned his hearing back down, afraid that he knew what had happened. Overlord let out one last scream before it erupted into a wall of flame. Sonic and Knuckles, seeing this, braced themselves and covered their eyes.

A wall of heat blasted them first, burning off the ends of their fur. The shockwave came next. An invisible force threw all three heroes into the air like rag dolls, buildings collapsed under the enormous strain, cars flew in all directions, lamp posts were torn from what was left of the concrete, and the ground shook. Astro, Sonic, and Knuckles lay on the ground in a daze. Sonic was first to regain his bearings.

Sonic's P.O.V.:

My stomach hurt, my arms hurt, my feet hurt, my head hurt, and my quills hurt. Everything hurt. There was a bit of red on the ground beside me, and I realized that I had a gash in my left arm going from my shoulder to my elbow. I covered it with my hands to prevent it from bleeding anymore, as I was probably not going to find any medical gauze lying around. The blast completely demolished everything Metal Sonic was near, including the asphalt and cement. Where he had been, there was a black mark.

I thought I saw some blue in the middle, but burn marks weren't blue even if they were on the ground. The heat peeled off all the asphalt and cement around the blast. The burn mark was surrounded by brown dirt, and the dirt even stretched over the asphalt that survived, too. I looked around at the damage it caused elsewhere. The city was in shambles. Cars were sticking out of windows, lamp posts were sticking out of the ground like trees, most of the buildings were crumpled down to the third story, and dead or dying robots that seemed to be streetlights and caution signs littered the streets.

I briefly wondered if any were like Astro, with feelings and emotions. Knuckles got up next, rubbing his head. He looked around then said, "What have we done? We should have led him out of the city, if he was that dangerous. There's barely any city left." I nodded, still a little shocked at the robo-carnage that I saw with new eyes.

How many robots like Astro did I carelessly destroy while I 'saved' countless cities? Did Eggman's robots also feel like Astro did? I shoved the questions aside, saving them for later. "What heroes we were." I said sarcastically "we basically trashed an entire city in the span of two days."

"Two days? What did we miss?"

"Long story, at the moment, though, the authorities are going to be looking for someone to blame. No matter what world you're in, they usually blame the abnormal ones, which in this case would be us." I said. Getting thrown into a maximum security prison for saving a city was not very high on my 'things to do' list. Astro had woken up during the conversation, but probably missed most of it. "You okay, Astro?" He nodded his head, "I guess so..."

Suddenly his eyes widened, glowing blue slightly. He looked like he had seen a ghost. "Sonic, run over to where Metal Sonic died and pick up what you find there. After that, run away toward my dad, Dr. Tenma's house. Run as fast as you can, hurry." I didn't question him, for some reason, I just turned and boosted the way I was told.

Maybe it was his glowing eyes, or maybe it was the look in his face, the look that he had already done this before, several times. Whichever one, I boosted out of there. I ran straight for the charred, black scorch mark on the ground. Even when I was still a half-mile away, I saw something shining on the ground near the center. My heart doubled in pace. I knew that luster only too well.

Knuckle's P.O.V.:

Already, I was suspicious about this boy. He had just proved himself of having extraordinary powers, and was the only human I knew of that would stand up to the Metal Overlord. I wouldn't ever admit it to Sonic, but I have a slight fear of those lifeless eyes it had. They were false images, as the Metal Sonic was completely capable of thinking on its own. The thing that bothered me was that it became stronger and more knowledgeable the more it fought. It was way past my strength level even at its weakest moments now.

I had to use power from the Master Emerald shard I was using to track Sonic just to knock him down. When the kid whom Sonic called Astro finished talking to Sonic, he told me "Tails will be within its radius soon, we have to stop him!"

"Wait, from what?" I asked.

"No time, we have to go now!" By now, a dozen things were swirling through my head. I could see the X-tornado in the distance. Somehow, Astro knew Tails was in trouble. I needed to concentrate, slipping up was not an option. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but pinch myself to see if I wasn't dreaming when he picked me up and started flying.

I didn't know much about humans, but one thing I **did** know is that humans can't fly. Yet Astro was flying me right up to Tails. I knew right then, this was no ordinary human child. We reached the X-tornado in mere seconds. Tails noticed us right away, "Hey Knuckles, who's you-"

I didn't have time to be nice to him, "Tails, you need to turn back, now!"

"What?" Then it happened. A bright flash of light smothered everything away for a few seconds, then disappeared. I looked back and saw a glowing, blue orb slowly growing to engulf the entire city. This was Astro's city. I looked up to see if he was holding up. He looked at the remains of the city slowly being swallowed up by the blue orb of energy. Surprisingly, he only looked slightly worried. "Oh, that. Well then, let's get outa' here!"

The orb was growing, quickly picking up speed. It was halfway to us already. We turned the other direction and started flying. My dreadlocks flapped against the wind as I let go of Astro and started gliding as fast as I could. I could glide pretty fast, and I would just slow the kid down. When we were at the edge of the city, the orb was almost touching our feet, but it was slowing down.

It inched closer, centimeters from Astro and my feet. "Get onto the plane, then pull me in!" I told him. He nodded as the flickering orange flames he had suddenly became a constant blue. This enabled him to grab the back fin. He then offered me his other hand, which I thankfully took. The orb by now was up to my ankles, and I felt as if my feet had turned into lead weights.

I tightened my grip on Astro's hand, holding on for my actual life. It rose to my knees, and my hand started to slip. My grip loosened more, I was about to let go. Then the orb stopped, releasing my feet and legs. We outran whatever it had been.

Sonic's P.O.V.:

It was a Chaos Emerald! We were one step closer to going home! I didn't stop running until I was sure I was out of the blast radius. The last thing I wanted to do was to find out what exactly happened inside a blue flash. I scanned the sky for any sign of Tails. I smiled when I saw the X-tornado coming towards me. It landed as graceful as ever, thanks to Tails' flying skills.

Astro and Knuckles both hopped out of the back seat, looking like they ran from the blue flash instead of flying. "Sonic, I knew you'd be here!" Tails ran right up to me.

I patted him on the head and chuckled, "long time no see little buddy." I turned to Astro, "We've gotta get out of here, they have to blame someone, y'know."

He nodded, "Let's go back to my dad's house. I'm sure he can help you with your predicament." After we had introduced each other, Astro and I led Knuckles and Tails to the man called Tenma.

?:

I watched the disgustingly insignificant life forms with pure hatred. If I had my way, they would not be alive for long. I just needed time. I had already fooled the dim-witted Skunk to rebuild the Erase-O-Bot for me. It was charging as I watched in a secret lab underneath Metro City. I was fairly confident that the city would be rebuilt in, at most, four days with their advanced technology. I would give them an entire week. Then they will know to fear my name. I would not make the same mistake twice.


	8. 8: All about Mechanics

_**As I told you, things are hard for me, at the moment. They are starting to clear up, though, so I might be able to update as I was before. It will take some effort, but I will manage. I was barely able to post this, so it might be a little messy. As always, Enjoy!**_

**All about Mechanics**

Tails immediately got to work on Sonic, properly bandaging his arm; dressing the various wounds and burns on his muzzle, arms, and legs; and making sure he didn't run off when he needs rest. Knuckles' legs had turned blue, but reverted to their original color by the time they had arrived at Dr. Tenma's establishment. Astro had introduced him to Tails and Knuckles. Tails' namesakes had wagged crazily when he heard that Astro's father was an inventor. He finished working on Sonic, and went to help Dr. Tenma with Astro. His circuitry had taken quite a beating during the last battle.

The doctor was glad to have help, never betraying to who he was not three years ago. Miles helped wherever he could, impressed by the advanced circuitry. Dr. Tenma and Tails finished on Astro in less than an hour. In that hour, Tails quickly found out how anti-social Astro's father could be. He never even uttered a word. After they had finished, they stood there in awkward silence for a good five minutes before Dr. Tenma had uttered out, "thank you."

Tails hurried out of the room soon after. Sonic had fallen asleep, so Tails decided it was time to give his plane a small tune-up. Astro's dad had walked out of the room Astro was in to hear the sound of a wrench. Intrigued, he quietly crept up to his garage to see the fox in the cockpit of a small, blue plane tightening something on the dashboard. When Tails had finished tightening whatever it was he was tightening, Dr. Tenma cleared his throat quite loudly. The unexpected sound in the otherwise silent room startled him, and he dropped the wrench. Dr. Tenma cleared his throat again and said, "You seem to have dropped your wrench."

Tails slowly nodded, "yeah, could you get that for me, please?" Dr. Tenma took this opportunity to strike up a conversation, something he hadn't done in years.

He asked, "Is this your plane?" Tails nodded faster, and the talk continued. They conversed awhile, and Tails was overjoyed at talking to someone about his favorite subject without seeing the clueless expression on their face. Dr. Tenma understood him clearly, and he was interested in seeing his inventions. "So, you are interested in mechanics I see", Dr. Tenma said after examining Tail's plane, "You built this all by yourself?"

Tails shook his head, "Actually, I modified it to be able to take on the missions I do often. Sonic built the actual plane." At this remark Dr. Tenma was slightly confused.

He said, "I find that hard to believe, being a mechanic and inventor just does not seem to fit correctly with his character."

Tails nodded, "I know it doesn't, but I couldn't really say I was too normal either." He pointed at his namesakes, saying, "These aren't normal, even where I come from." Dr. Tenma nodded, quickly glancing over his two bushy tails.

"I see, so this Sonic. What is he like?" He was curious about his new guest more than ever now.

"Well, he's generous, kind, and forgiving, he never likes to sit around, has a short temper, he's definitely smarter than he looks, and he's easy to befriend." Dr. Tenma took it all in, trying to picture such an odd character, nothing really came up.

He did see a way to get more information, though, "where did you learn the skills necessary to build such a vehicle?"

"Sonic gave me a major starting point in building big stuff, though only airplanes, since that's all he knew how to build. After that, I taught myself."

By now the doctor wanted to know just one question. Now, only a simple question that would satisfy his curiosity. He asked, "How old are you?"

Tails smiled proudly and happily stated, "I'm eight years old."

If Dr. Tenma had been eating or drinking anything, he was sure he would have choked on it by now. This boy was a miracle! Maybe he could convince the fox to join the Ministry, but that would put up many other problems. How could he get the boy 'up to date' was the main one. He decided to base his plan of action on Tail's decision, "you are a very talented young lad, with very precocious intellect. I would like to know if, by any chance, you would want to become part of the Ministry of Science."

Tails became interested right away, "what is the Ministry of Science?"

"It is an association of every kind of science, from astronomy to biology. Think of it as a factory that produces new ideas rather than tangible materials. If you figure out how to mass produce your idea, you can become extremely wealthy lending them to companies that are able to physically create them. Of course, you will need a physical working model, but with your talent, the only problem I see is funding.", Dr. Tenma smiled, a rare occurrence anywhere.

Tails nodded and said, "Alright, when can I get started?"

IN SONIC'S ROOM:

Sonic woke up with a splitting headache that made his eyes water. He tried to get up, but his side stung as if Shadow had thrown a Chaos Spear at it. He winced and lay back down, already feeling bored and trapped. "Well, well, sleeping beauty finally woke up." Knuckles teased.

"Lay off knuckle-head, I wasn't out that long." Sonic thought for a minute, "was I?"

Knuckles chuckled, "Much longer than I have."

Sonic knew what was coming, but didn't feel up to it at the moment, "I'll deal with you later Knuckles, have you seen Tails?"

Knuckles nodded, "He walked out of here two hours ago." Sonic mused over the new independent nature of his 'little brother' for a minute, and then ran out of the room. Knuckles sighed and yelled out, "do you even have a clue where he went?"

Sonic stopped dead in his tracks and looked back looking honestly confused, "no, should I?"

Knuckles sighed, "Forget about it. Just call me if you find any Master Emerald prices."

"Alright, see ya!" Sonic walked down the ornate staircase, once again wondering how much it must have cost just for the rug he was standing on. Once he was outside, he looked around for the most teck-like building he could find. He didn't have to look far. Dr. Tenma's house was at a dead end and on the other end of the road across an intersection, was an enormous building with a sing near the front that read 'Welcome to the Ministry of Science'. 'That's got Tails written all over it' he ran toward the building, stopping at the door. He opened it and carefully walked inside.

He learned from experience that smart people like their work environment dead quiet, and would take big precautions to get it. The last thing he wanted was to walk into the building and get arrested right after he was barely let off the hook the first time. Sonic also knew that geniuses stuck together, so to find Tails he had to find either Dr. Tenma or Astro. He somehow managed to find the receptionist's desk through the monotonous decoration and uniform appearance. The receptionist was reading what appeared on a page made of a blue light created by some sort of tube-like machine. He was about to ask her where Dr. Tenma was when he noticed another tube-like machine that was labeled 'labs in use'.

He picked it up and searched for some way to turn it on. He found a red button on an end of the machine, so he pushed it. A page made of blue light popped out of a slit in the machine. Sonic, realizing he held it backwards, turned the tube so the button was facing away from him. He read the first page, which had a lab or office number, a name, and either a 'in use' or 'not in use' sign on its right. He slid his finger upwards on the now-solid screen to see if he could 'turn a page' or scroll.

Sure enough, the names above disappeared and new names popped up on the bottom. Sonic quickly scrolled through the list, looking for Dr. Tenma's name. To his surprise, he found 'Miles Prower' in the list. "Funny, I didn't know Tails had a job." Sonic looked at the room number. He was in room D-0. "Room D-0 it is then" Sonic ran off toward the room, leaving the receptionist to her reading.

Room D-0:

Sonic had no trouble getting their whatsoever, just winding around the scared security guards. 'Then again' he thought, 'it's kind of hard to catch anything when you're in complete shock'. He opened the door to find Tails working on the X-Tornado. It looked like Tails was welding something in the cockpit. Blue sparks flew around like a swarm of flies and died out before they got anywhere farther than the chair Tails was sitting on. "Finished!" ,Sonic heard after a minute.

He smiled and shouted out "hey Tails, what are you doing here?" His twin-tails twitched in surprise, he looked up from the control panel and saw the familiar blue he knew so well.

"Hey Sonic, I'm working on the X-tornado. I'm trying to add a scanner, so we'll be able to see Eggman coming if there's a surprise attack."

"Nice, so are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm just testing it out to see if it will work." Sonic ran up to the plane and jumped into the passenger seat.

"What about the scanner for the Chaos Emeralds?" ,he asked.

Tails smiled like if he had just discovered Atlantis, "the scanner can now scan for Eggman robots, Chaos Emeralds, Rings, and many other powerful artifacts. It just needs an example to scan on." Sonic smiled, remembering the _powerful artifact_ he was wearing.

'Now there's an idea' he pulled off his gauntlet, which somehow nobody had noticed and handed it to Tails, "alright, then scan this."

Tails looked at him blankly, "scan what?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "the glove in my hand."

Tails looked at Sonic a little worriedly, "Sonic, I don't see any glove."

Sonic's eyes widened in realization, 'of course'. "Look, you're going to have to trust me. What I have in my hand is a gauntlet. Try to grab it." Tails looked skeptical; nevertheless, he reached out toward Sonic's seemingly empty hand. His hand stopped. About two inches from Sonic's hand, Tails felt the hard, cold, and familiar texture of metal. Tails grasped the invisible object and placed it in a compartment on the dashboard.

"Starting the scan, scanning...Sonic, we located something!"

"Ha-ha, let's go!" Tails pressed a button, and the back wall folded in on itself. Sonic's jaw dropped for a second before he regained his composure, "that isn't all the upgrades you did apparently, nice one buddy." ,Sonic congratulated him. Tails just modestly blushed and started up the X-tornado.

Cora's House:

Astro knocked on the door, and waited for Cora or her mother to answer. After a few minutes, the door opened to reveal the face of his good friend. "Hi, Cora! The robot destroyed much of the city, and I just wanted to know if you were alright", he said. Cora smiled, already reassuring him that everything was fine.

"Yep, everything is pretty good here. What about all of your other friends?"

"I haven't checked on them yet, I was hoping you'd come with me. Or better yet, I was hoping maybe everyone could meet up again. It has been a long time since everyone got together. I was hoping everyone could meet me at my dad's house." Cora's smile fell a small bit. She didn't really like Astro's friends from Metro City, especially the geek Alejo. The way he was so snoopy about the things making Astro tick annoyed her to no end.

Still, she bit her tongue and said, "Sure, let's go!"

"Thanks, Cora. Let's go get Abercrombie first, then let's get Zane." Astro crouched a bit, signaling to Cora that she should get on. She jumped onto Astro's back, bracing herself for Astro's dynamic launch. She didn't have to wait too long, she felt the relentless pull of gravity just seconds after she had gotten on. In a minute, they had already reached the clouds. Cora stared once again at the wonderful, puffy landscape, dressed in differing shades of purple, orange, blue, and red.

They swirled around in a puffy, slow movement. Then Astro raced forward, making many of the clouds blend together like an underwater scene. The sun not too much higher than them, emitting a strangely cool and soft light over them, revealing more of the intangible landscape as they flew. After some time, Cora began to notice that Astro looked hesitant of something, unsure. "Hey, are you all right?" ,she asked.

"Ye-yeah, just a-a little bit nervous I guess." She could tell something was wrong, but figured he'd feel more like talking about it after he saw everyone. Cora decided to put it off until later. They arrived at Abercrombie's house minutes later. Astro rung a modest doorbell and stood in front of a plain blue door on a house looking much like Dr. O'shay's.

Abercrombie answered the door two minutes after Astro rang the doorbell, "hi, Astro! I haven't seen you in a while. How come you don't visit us as much anymore? The Sky Riders are pretty lonely without you there." Astro gave him a sheepish grin and said "Sorry, I've been pretty busy." "Abercrombie smiled and said, "No biggie, I just wanted to know is all. So, why the sudden appearance, Astro?"

Astro's eyes lit up, "oh. Right." It took him some time, but he finally realized that although it was a good idea, he hadn't thought his plan thoroughly enough. He didn't know what they were going to do once everyone was there. He had to admit, there wasn't much they could do in their usual meeting place that was suited to a party of 10. So, he improvised. 'Maybe dad will let me bring my friends over' he thought, 'he never says no, so I don't see a big problem giving him an hour's notice'. Astro still felt pretty bad to surprise his father like that, 'I'll make it up to him later'.

Astro replied, "Uh... I was hoping that we could meet at my dad's house, if it was okay with you guys."

"You guys? Oh, you mean everyone. Kinda' like a reunion or something like that. Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks, Astro!"

"You're welcome, thank you too. Bye!" Cora jumped on Astro's back and they flew off toward a newly built orphanage, where they would find Zane, Sludge, and Widget. Astro rose above the clouds once again, flying through the white ocean. He jumped once, like a dolphin, before plunging back down below the clouds to find the orphanage directly below him. He let himself fall a few feet before he remembered he had a passenger on his back. He flipped so that he was right side up, and then checked on Cora.

"Are you alright Cora?", he asked, knowing the reply he'd get from her.

"Well you were prepared to dive-bomb the rest of the way there at maybe a hundred miles per hour. How do you think I am?"

"Sorry, I sorta forgot I had a passenger, you were being so quiet."

Cora just shook her head, "let's just go, before I lose my lunch." Astro lowered himself the rest of the way fairly slowly, landing without any tricks.

He looked pretty sad, so Cora playfully pushed him forward, "oh come on, Astro. It's all right. You know I could have taken a small dip like what you were going to do." Astro turned towards Cora and gave her a small smile before walking up to the orphanage and knocking on the door. A small and skinny man with a helmet of white hair answered the door, dressed in clothes that looked like they were made of rags. For some reason, Astro had always felt a pang of guilt looking at the man, like it was his fault that he was wearing those rags.

The man, whose name was Koro, had treated Astro nicely, though, and reassured him countless times that it was his decision to wear such things. Astro had deep respect for him, because he used even some of his own money for the children in the orphanage. "Hello, Koro. Could I see Zane, Sludge, and Widget please?"

"Sure, my friend. Come inside, I will take you to them." Astro followed Koro down the hallway in front of them, taking them to a room whose number was 245.

IN AN ABANDONED MINE SHAFT:

Sonic raced forward with Tails by his side, following the green arrows flashing on the screen. It didn't take them long to find a huge chamber, with glowing purple hieroglyphic symbols written all over the walls in intricate patterns. In the middle of the chamber was a rock with a glowing cylinder in the middle that stretched to the roof. Sonic walked towards it, curious as ever. "Be careful Sonic, it could be one of Eggman's traps." , Tails warned from behind. Sonic and Tails arrived at the column to see that it was a cylinder of light surrounding a sword. When they arrived, Tails noticed that the golden gauntlet was now visible to him.

A sword he knew very well. It was Excalibur, but Sonic knew it by a different name. "Caliburn, is that you?" The sword didn't answer.

"C'mon Sonic, quit talking to it. Swords can't talk." Sonic could tell that Tails was getting aggravated, so Sonic decided to show Tails through demonstration rather than through conversation. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt, and pulled. For a full minute the sword didn't come out. Sonic was afraid that Caliburn had not chosen him this time, but the sword eventually slid smoothly out of the rock. Sonic let it go right before the sword spun like a buzz saw. It stopped.

The sword spun around so that two eyes and a metallic mouth faced Sonic and Tails. "Knight of the Wind, is that you?" Sonic's already large smile stretched wider at the sword's recognition.

"Long time no see Caliburn, are you still an oversized letter-opener?"

"Only if you, my friend, are still that ill-mannered knave that I had the honor of teaching." Through this whole time, Tails remained quiet. Sonic turned around to see his little brother's eyes bulging like saucers, filled with confusion.

"Tails, meet Caliburn." Tails eyes shrunk a bit, but were still pretty wide when he nodded toward the sacred sword. "Caliburn, welcome to the future I guess. This isn't even the world I live in."

Caliburn gave him a questioning look, "what do you mean by that?" Sonic scratched the back of his head, finding the ordeal to be too hard to understand, himself.

"Let's just say that I got caught in the middle of another mess."

"Well, let us get on to fixing it then." ,Caliburn said.

Sonic's expression turned a tad bit more serious, "first, I think you should have a look at this gauntlet I'm wearing. Do you know what these markings are for?" Caliburn examined them closely, his gaze gliding over the intricate patterns engraved into the knuckles of the artifact.

"No, I apologize Sonic. They are not familiar to me."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders, "eh, you can't win 'em all. Now, then. We've got to find Astro, and tell him what happened. Let's go Tails!" The trio ran to the plane, Sonic grabbing Caliburn so he could be in the plane as well. Tails initiated the launching sequence, and they were off. Tails still kept quiet until they got to the plane, only one thing swirling around in his mind. 'I can't believe it, Sonic was right!'


End file.
